Ghost Dad?

This story disturbed me, so I thought I'd share it. This 21 year-old man died. Unmarried. His mother got a judge to allow her to collect sperm from his corpse so she could find a surrogate and someday have a grandchild. My first thought was this seems weird and creepy.



But then my lawyer brain kicked in. I took two classes in law school that touched on the issues presented in this case: Family Law and a Bioethics class. Beyond the basics like property and trusts and estates. Obviously his mother was his next of kin so gets to decide what to do with his body: organ donation, form of burial. I'm assuming at 21, he hadn't prepared any legal documents indicating his wishes for his remains.



This seems like more than just an inheritance/property issue, though. She is looking to create a child without her son's authorization. Maybe the law should require some kind of clear evidence that this young man not only did intend to father a child someday, but further that he would still have wanted a child to be created in this way. It just seems a big leap for this mother to say that because her 21 year-old son had expressed a desire to have kids in that mythical some day, he would still want some surrogate to have his child now that he wouldn't be around to father that child. I just don't think a guy should be turned into a sperm donor without his expressed consent.

Would it make any difference if she just wanted to donate his sperm anonymously to a sperm bank? That would be more in line with traditional organ donation: using his remains to help people who otherwise might not be able to have children. To me that seems different from the mother using a surrogate to produce a grandchild. There's a difference between letting others become parents and turning the now dead man into a parent himself.

I'm still turning this interesting legal issue over in my head. Anyone else have a thought?